Ousmane Sonko announced on Monday 19 October in Dakar that Pastef deputies would vote neither for the supplementary finance bill for 2026 nor for the initial budget for 2027 without provisions governing special funds. The party leader and National Assembly president was speaking at a press conference.
His parliamentary group intends to propose amendments to introduce these rules into the texts submitted to deputies, Seneweb reports. He warns that if the government resorts to a block vote, Pastef would reject the entire text should its demand not be met.
He presents the oversight of these appropriations as a political commitment by his camp, while saying he wants to discuss a compromise with the government. He says his party is not seeking to provoke an institutional crisis.
His reservations also concern the trade-offs between restoring public finances and protecting households. He criticises the cuts in appropriations that he attributes to the amending budget in social spending and investment, as well as the planned reduction in subsidies on petroleum products, Le Soleil reports.
The question of special funds comes after the Constitutional Council struck down, on 15 October, an amendment to the organic law on finance laws, adopted by the Assembly on 1 October. In its decision, the Council sanctioned a procedural irregularity in the handling of government amendments.
The court recalled that, when the executive requests a single vote covering only the amendments it has proposed or accepted, deputies must either approve the text as presented or reject it in its entirety.